


Peter plays the long game

by HurrahForSmut



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Peter Hale is Evil, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-19
Updated: 2016-08-19
Packaged: 2018-08-09 17:47:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7811356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HurrahForSmut/pseuds/HurrahForSmut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She’d almost forgotten Peter, which is always a mistake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Peter plays the long game

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [state of readiness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/828353) by [girlguidejones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlguidejones/pseuds/girlguidejones). 
  * Inspired by [Not a Victory March](https://archiveofourown.org/works/420389) by [Saucery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery). 
  * Inspired by [Echo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/511810) by [Saucery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saucery/pseuds/Saucery). 



> I've borrowed some of the names and characters from the awesome State of Readiness by girlguidejones:  
> (Alpha) Marta is the leader of the Rodriguez pack, a powerful family with territory adjacent to the Hale territory.  
> Beth is Alpha Marta’s niece (my creation)  
> Janey is the Rodriguez pack's spark
> 
> For the purpose of this fic, Sheriff Stilinki's first name is John

Peter plays the long game.

At first he thinks Stiles is going to be a problem, but he soon realises that although the boy is impulsive and unpredictable, he is guided by one thought. This kid would throw himself in front of a moving train to save the people he loves. It doesn’t matter whether they love or value him back. He is all loyalty. Talia would have _adored_ him.

Talia was weak. She believed in love and re-made the Hale pack in her image. For a while she even made Peter believe in the power of love. But he knows better now: the only power is knowledge. Love is a weakness that your enemies will exploit. And Peter has many enemies.

 

Stiles is happy. Incandescent. He smiles, he goofs, he weaves his wild magic. School is finishing. He’s pack. He’s loved, secure for the first time since the death of his mother. And (here his heart clenches with bloody joy) he gets Derek fucking Hale. To fuck. In bed (and elsewhere). Derek Hale grunting over his body, Derek Hale kissing the moles on his cheek, Derek Hale hugging him to sleep. Derek Hale growling possessively at anyone who threatens him, only half in jest. He can’t believe his luck.

Derek snorts at the kid’s enthusiasm, rolls his eyes at his weird jokes and underhand humour, smooths things over when Stiles treads on anyone’s feelings. Not that they need it. They know. He doesn’t mean his cutting words; he says things without thinking sometimes. But Stiles will do anything to protect the pack.

Derek resolutely turns his face away from duty and the future to enjoy one summer. One holiday in the sunshine where no-one is trying to kill him or destroy his family. His pack has defeated trolls, witches, the Alpha pack, even Peter Hale. They rebuilt his house. They deserve a rest. He deserves a break. So he just lets the months drift by and enjoys Stiles' pale angular body and desperate lovemaking for one freaking summer.

 

It’s Janey, the Rodriguez pack’s spark, who tells Stiles first. She’s human, so she can’t feel the depth of his reaction, although she sees the sheen of cold sweat that breaks out on his face. A strengthening of the alliance between the Rodriguez pack and the Hale pack. They already send their human magicians and werewolves to visit each other. The next logical step is marriage. Beth is Alpha Marta’s niece, a born werewolf, someone who can reliably give Derek werewolf children.

Stiles hears the roaring in his ears and feels his chest hollowing out. Of course. Derek owes this to his dead family. He needs to rebuild the Hale pack properly. Not with teenagers and half-breeds but with real Hale werewolves.

It’s not like Derek ever promised him anything. It was Stiles who threw himself at Derek. Derek merely accepted what was offered, and never suggested that they be anything more than… sex-buddies? Convenient outlets? He knows Derek has been talking about Stiles going across the country for college like separation was inevitable. But Stiles let himself believe that they were more than that. The echo in his ears sounds a lot like laughter. Stiles is used to being the butt of other people’s jokes. He knows that he’s not special enough to deserve Derek’s love.

He also knows he cannot lie to the werewolves, so he protects himself the way he always has: with carefully prepared half-truths, deflections and humorous stories. It was good that Janey told him of the plan so the news isn’t sprung on him in some open place where he would not be able to stop his friends from knowing how he feels. He has time to prepare, time to build his defences. Distraction. Stiles has it down to an art form.

John Stilinki knows. Lydia and Scott guess but don’t press on the bruise, letting him be. Letting him adjust his armour. Stiles retreats from Derek’s bed and no-one says anything. (Derek doesn’t say anything). It’s better that way.

 

Beth is beautiful, feminine and lush. Even Lydia approves of her understated style. She is un-pretentious, pleasant and fucking gorgeous. Lively and amusing, quiet and graceful. No ungainly flailing. Just interested warm good humour. No snide comments or warped sci-fi references that no-one else gets. Curves and shy smiles. She’s lovely. Everyone likes her. In time, they’ll learn to love her. There’s nothing to hate.

Stiles can’t be in the same room.

He’s the one to suggest that he and Janey swap places to further consolidate the alliance. He’s not going to college. He’s got magic to learn and people to protect. He’ll do that better free in the Rodriguez pack’s territory than cooped up in college trying to write papers on macro-economic reform. He might even travel around Mexico and see what else he can pick up. He’s exhausted Deaton’s library and Deaton’s taught him all he knows anyway. It makes sense.

Derek nods, agrees and lets him go. It was never going to last.

 

Scott worries, but Allison’s unplanned pregnancy takes up all of his emotional energy. He has to qualify as a vet, earn money, appease the Argents and his mom. That’s enough to keep anyone busy. Especially when it turns out to be twins. Yep, Scott has a few things on his mind besides Stiles' emotional well-being.

Lydia visits and finds Stiles much changed and exactly the same. He is taller now. Broader, darker. Tanned by the Mexican sun with tattoos across his upper body and down his arms. His aura is more visible; lethal. He has grown into his power. But he still laughs wildly and tells stupid jokes and throws his arms around, basking in the sunshine of her attention. He still loves science fiction movies and will describe in excruciating detail the latest films and TV shows to have caught his eye.

Lydia knows that his magic has expanded when her bus rolls and only she and the chickens that were next to her survive the terrible grinding fall down the mountainside road. She used to be afraid for Stiles, but now, for the first time, she slightly afraid _of_ him.

 

Isaac misses a plane home from college that suffers catastrophic engine failure and everyone is very relieved at the almost comedic coincidences that lead him to be too late for the final boarding call. It is a good story; sad, weird, freaky and funny. Stiles would have appreciated it and retold it with his own embellishments, but he wasn’t around for the Christmas reunion that followed.

Stiles stays away from Beacon Hills. He can bear loneliness better than their pity and concern. (Contempt). John visits him and makes noises about moving to Southern California after he retires. But everyone knows that he will never really leave town. And he’ll never retire.

 

Alpha Marta is very pleased to have Stiles in her pack. He’s capable, energetic and more powerful than any Spark she’s ever seen. She wonders that Derek let him go in exchange for Janey. Not that he is easy; he trips over his words sometimes and she knows that the others do not love him. He doesn’t lie, but he is slippery and hard to know; he doesn’t want to be known. He isn’t unfriendly, he’s just not pack. But he does all she asks and offers advice on problems she didn’t know she had. He sees things. He’s valuable. And he is funny. He loves to laugh.

So Marta comes to rely on Stiles. He can point out a marriage slipping towards crisis, an alliance going astray. He can ward off predators before they arrive. He can gift fertility on couples who have trouble conceiving. He can even work out tax returns, which in itself is a form of magic. He doesn’t offer advice on investments. He exchanged economics for the arcane.

 

Derek doesn’t need any help to create a union with Beth. It is a good marriage. He is content to have her in his home. And he is enchanted by the golden girl she gives him. She looks exactly like Beth, but her little smile reminds him of his mother. And in his son, he sees every male Hale relative he has known and lost. His father, his brothers, even himself before the fire. When the baby is bad tempered or distressed, Derek is forced to acknowledge a marked resemblance to Peter.

The rebuilt Hale house echoes with laughter. Visitors get squashed into giggling puppy piles by two gloriously happy children. Beth is the perfect host for the many gatherings they hold. Graduations, christenings, birthdays, Christmases. The pack expands rapidly once Allison gets over the shock of twins. Even Isaac shyly introduces a fiancé, and then a child. Lydia strolls in and out of Beacon Hills as she climbs the corporate ladder, dazzling them with her successes. (Stiles does not attend).

Monsters know better than to trespass on Hale territory. The Hale children are innocent of things that go bump in the night, fiercely guarded by attentive parents (and protective magic).

 

It is John Stilinski who breaks the spell that started the summer they graduated. He calls to tell Derek that he has finally killed his son. Derek hasn’t seen Stiles in more than a decade, and tells the Sheriff so. But he immediately calls Marta.

 

Marta remembers why she was friends with Talia Hale. Talia was warm, open and honest. The Hale pack had previously been feared for their subtlety and manipulation. They were players. But when Talia became Alpha, that changed. Long held feuds were forgiven, enemies turned into friends and the cold silent house became a welcoming family home instead of a place where deals were brokered and percentages collected. Talia brought her children up to love and trust, and Kate Argent used that naivety to worm her way in and burn them away.

When Peter slunk in to suggest renewing the alliance years ago, she recognised his manipulative ways and snorted at his lack of subtlety. She was too well versed in pack politics to step in and support the Hale pack when they weren't even a real pack, just a bunch of kids defending and dying around Beacon Hills. Still, Peter made it clear he didn't like or approve of his nephew, so Derek couldn't be all bad. She sat back to watch and see if Derek could find some stability before she made any decisions. Peter was not a consideration by the time she sent out her first token of tentative friendship.

Marta hadn’t been sure what Derek would be as an Alpha. She was pleased and heartened to see him reflect Talia. She sent him her beloved niece because she recognised her old friend in his rebuilt home and pack. But it was Peter who planted the seed, suggesting that she could revive Talia's legacy, all those years ago. She’d almost forgotten Peter, which is always a mistake.

She recognises a cunning Hale revenge in her Spark.

Marta can almost see through Stiles now. He doesn’t laugh so much any more. His energy is nearly gone. His hollowness is starting to show. He’s sorry, but he is almost all used up. He’s been giving too much for too long, but he can’t (won't) stop. He falls asleep in the early afternoons and is always cold. Marta’s pack tends to him out of duty and loyalty, but not out of love. He didn’t love them.

 

The Sheriff dies. It is a sombre reunion. Beth offers to host a wake, but Stiles isn’t well enough to attend, so they just go to the funeral home and then the cemetery. Stiles sits at the front, but doesn’t give a speech. The Hale pack are in shock and disarray at the double blow of John Stilinski’s death and Stiles’ appearance. They have forgotten how it used to be when they lived on the edge of the knife. The last 14 years have not prepared them for this.

Derek is horrified to see the bright boy of his dreams as a charcoaled husk. He is blackened by his own fire. Stiles presses a cold hand to Derek's cheek but will not speak to him. Stiles sheds tears on his father’s unmoving shoulder and draws into himself. In the end, you cannot protect those you love unless they love you back. Stiles has woven them protective talismans with the last of his magic. There is even one for Beth.

 

The Rodriguez pack bury Stiles on their land. He was _their_ Spark, and Marta won’t send his body back to the people who killed him.

 

Slowly the laughter dies out of the Hale house. It’s funny how a man they did not miss (or even know) can have such an impact on them. It felt like he was always here, just waiting around the corner, in the next room, studying quietly in the library. Now that his spirit is gone, the house feels empty.

Beth is sad, betrayed, lonely. She cannot understand why the love she gave is suddenly not enough. Why Derek retreats politely, coldly, apologising but implacable. She turns angry, shouting half guesses which are uncomfortably close to the truth. She threatens and eventually makes good on her threats and moves out. Marta is glad to have her home. She is safer away from the Hales.

 

The children stay out of loyalty to memories of their laughing father but find no comfort in him. He is solitary, bitter and cannot give them the affection they crave. They are angry with their mother for her desertion. They retreat to the dusty, dark corners of the Hale house and learn to hear their great uncle whispering quietly to them about weakness and betrayal.

His words sound like dry leaves shuffling in the wind. His words are tinder.


End file.
